Many of the species are gregarious, and except during the breeding season, are always seen in large and numerous bodies; others, as the black cockatoos, are met with in pairs or families. The places selected for hatching their eggs, and rearing their young, are the hollows of decayed trees, they make little or no nest, but deposit their eggs, which, according to the species, vary from two to five or six in number, upon the bare rotten wood. In these hollows, it is said, they also frequently roost during the night, and such we learn is the practice of the bird previously mentioned, for the same author observes, "Their roosting place is in hollow trees, and the holes excavated by the larger species of Woodpeckers, as far as these can be filled by them. At dusk, a flock of parrakeets may be seen alighting against the trunk of a sycamore or any other tree, where a considerable excavation exists within it. Immediately below the entrance, the birds all cling to the bark, and crawl into the hole to pass the night. When such a hole does not prove sufficient to hold the whole flock, those around the entrance hook themselves on by their claws and the tip of the upper mandible, and look as if hanging by the bill. I have," he adds, "frequently seen them in such positions by means of a glass, and am satisfied that the bill is not the only support used in such cases."

The natural voice or notes of the tribe consist entirely of hoarse or shrill and piercing screams, with little or no modulation, and frequently reiterated during flight, as well as when otherwise engaged in feeding, bathing, or preserving their plumage. The power of imitating the human voice, and learning to articulate a variety of words and sentences, is not possessed by all the species, but is principally confined to the short and even-tailed parrots, in which the tongue is large, broad, and fleshy at the tip. In disposition, with the exception of one or two forms, they are quiet and docile, and easily reconciled to confinement, even when taken at an adult age. Their flesh is said to be tender and well flavoured, particularly that of the younger birds, and is frequently used as food in the districts they inhabit. The general characters of the family are - bill convex, large, deflected, thick, and strong. The tipper mandible, overhanging the under, hooked at the tip, and furnished with a small cere at the base, the under mandible thick, ascending, and forming when closed, an angle with the upper. Tongue thick, fleshy, and soft. Nostrils round, placed in the cere at the base of the bill. Feet scansorial, the external toes longer than the inner. In regard to their internal anatomy, we may here observe that the bill is furnished with additional and powerful muscles, and that the intestinal canal is of great length and destitute of caeca.

We shall now proceed to describe the examples selected to illustrate the different groups, making such farther observations as may he required upon the subfamilies and genera as they occur.

We shall commence with the subfamily of the Macrocercinae or Maccaws, which, in its own family, is analogous to the dentirostral tribe of the In-sessores, and represents the subtypical group of the Psittacidae. By Mr Vigors, in the view he has taken of the distribution of the Parrots, this subfamily is restricted to the Maccaws properly so called, a group arranging itself under one, or at most, two generic types, the other American long-tailed Parrots, as well as those belonging to the ancient world, being all included in another division to which he gave the name of Palaeornina. To this distribution there are strong and manifold objections, uniting as it does in one great group, birds differing essentially in structure as well as habit, such as the Lories and other nectivorous Parrots, and those various genera which compose the Platycercine subfamily, which depart so far from the true scansorial species in their character and general habits. It is on this account, and as being more in accordance with the natural affinities of the race, that we have adopted the suggestions of Mr Swainson, in regard to the primary divisions of this family, though we must add, that much additional information is required to work out the details, and that there are many species whose exact station remains doubtful, and which further analysis and observation can alone satisfactorily resolve. In addition to the true Maccaws, the typical form of this subfamily, it appears naturally to embrace many of the other American long-tailed species, now divided into separate generic groups (except by Wagler, who retains the whole under the single genius Sittace), one of which has been characterized under the title of Psittacara, Vigors, answering nearly to the Peruche-Aras of the French ornithologists, the members of which are distinguished by having the orbits and face to a greater or less extent naked, as exhibited in the species selected for illustration. Another is composed of the species in which those parts are feathered, and for which the title of Aratinga has been proposed, though it is probable that a still further generic subdivision of this latter group will be required. In this division, also, we would place the long-tailed Parrots of the ancient world, forming the genus Pa-laeornis, Vigors, a group whose history and distribution he has traced with such acumen and classic lore in the pages of the Zoological Journal. With this group we shall commence our illustrations, as it is through one of its members, the Palaeornis Barra-bandi, Vigors, that a connexion appears to be supported with the Platycercine or broad-tailed division, which stands at the further extremity of the circle of the Psittacidae. This bird, with the tail and general character of Palaeornis, exhibiting a near approach in the proportions of its legs and feet to the genus Platycercus, Vigors, of whose region or metropolis it is also a native. The passage from the King-Par-rakeets to the smaller American species, appears to be effected through those species in which the two central tail feathers begin to lose the peculiar character of the typical form, and the culmen of the bill assumes the ridged or triangulate shape that prevails in that American group of which Psitt. cruen-tatus, Temm., may be taken as an example ; these are followed by the larger species, as Psitt. Caroli-nensis and Patachonica, which lead to the Maccaws by such members as have the cheeks partly feathered. Following the naked cheeked maccaws, we would place the true Psittacara, in which the orbits and part of the face is also naked, and the bill large and powerful, such as Psitt. acuticauda, nobilis, etc. The passage to the next subfamily, or Psitticina, seems to be through Psitt. macrorynchus (Tany-gnathus macrorynchus, Wag.), and other species, in which the tail loses its elongate and graduated shape.